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Master of Business Administration- MBA Semester 4
OM0015-Maintenance Management
(Book ID: B2008)
Assignment (60 Marks)
Note: Answer all questions must be written within 300 to 400 words each. Each Question carries 10
marks 6 X 10=60.
Q1. Write short notes on the following:
a. Proactive Maintenance.
b. Planned Maintenance Work Cycle.
c. Maintenance organising schedule.
d. Areas of Maintenance Practices.
Answer. a. During the production process, there are usual wear and tear of machines and equipment. If
this wear and tear is not addressed on time, it may lead to decreased productivity, obstructions in the
production process, delays in product delivery, and so on. Organisations take various measures to address
issues related to wear and tear. One of the most effective ways to resolve such issues is proactive
maintenance. Proactive maintenance is a practice generally adopted in the manufacturing industry
whereby the root causes of machine failures are determined and measures are taken to avoid such failures
in the future. It focuses on enhancing the life of assets and reducing maintenance cost by regular
Q2. What do you mean by Asset Strategy? Explain briefly Steps Involved in Developing an Asset
Strategy.
Answer. A strategy is a plan that is created by organisations to achieve a specific target. In simple words, it
can be defined as a route map that involves a number of steps, actions, standards, plans, and policies
required to attain the future goals of an organisation. On the other hand, an asset can be defined as a
resource required by an organisation to generate output. It is important to note that in maintenance,
assets include machines and equipment. An asset strategy is a plan prepared to arrange, schedule, and
control maintenance of assets. An effective asset strategy helps in determining maintenance activities to

2. Q3. Assume you are the head of the maintenance department in a manufacturing organisation. You are
assigned a responsibility of implementing a maintenance improvement program. What components
would you include in the maintenance improvement program?
Answer. The main aim of every organisation is to achieve long-term success. For this, organisations
establish certain goals and objectives arrange adequate resources, carry out processes with the help of
appropriate methods and techniques. However, no organisation can remain static to a single goal, process,
or technique for a long time. With constant development in the business world, organisations also need to
make frequent improvement in their existing processes to remain competitive. Similarly, organisations are
also required to improve their maintenance process from time to time to increase the life of their
machines and equipment. Therefore, how maintenance is performed and improved is very important.
Q4. What do you mean by Machine Quality? Which Aspects are to be Considered for Machine Quality?
Answer. Machine quality can be defined as the ability of a machine or equipment to produce products that
conform to defined specifications and are free of defects, thereby achieving customer satisfaction.
However, the machines and equipment of an organisation are subject to wear and tear over the years.
Here, the role of effective maintenance comes into the picture in preserving machines and equipment
under good working conditions. A machine is said to be a quality machine if it meets the following
requirements:
Q5. Write short notes on the following:
a. Zero based budgeting
b. Remote maintenance audit
c. Codification of spare parts
d. Maintenance Benchmarking.
Answer. a. It is a method of budgeting in which all expenditures are justified each time a budget is
prepared for a new period. Zero based budgeting begins with a ‘zero base.’ Each function within the
organisation is evaluated in terms of cost and requirements for the coming fiscal year. Budgets are later
prepared on the basis of the evaluation regardless of whether the budget is higher or lower than the
previous period. In simple terms, the zero based budgeting approach does not depend on historical data
and justifies all expenditures on the basis of the requirement and availability of resources. Let us
Q6. Case Study: Condition Monitoring at XYZ Ltd.
XYZ Ltd. is one of the largest hydro-generating facilities in India. The organisation has been in this business
for the last 10 years. It covers a building area of 150000 square metres and the plant area of 50000 square
metres. To manage such large plant area, the organisation has realised the need for high machine
reliability and availability. For this, XYZ has decided to implement a condition-based monitoring (CBM)
program. To make the program successful, the organisation formed a CBM team for the implementation of
the program. The team acquired knowledge about the current condition of each machine and equipment
in the plant and identified the following loopholes in the existing maintenance system:
 Present maintenance included only corrective and scheduled activities.
 Inspections were conducted less frequently (once in a year).

3.  The procedure followed for determining faults only contained visual inspection and gap
measurement.
 Measures to control contamination in oil were not present.
 There was no aggressive control of failure.
 Oil analysis was restricted to identifying haziness caused by high levels of moisture, often past the
danger point, or darkening due to advanced states of lubricant oxidation and breakdown.
Moreover, there were significantly high manpower requirements and maintenance costs in the
organisation. There were frequent failures of hydraulic shuttle valves that make the unit in operational. To
repair and restore these valves, the repair crew had to perform recce of the site (an hour each way),
disassemble the valve, and repair it.
The CBM team, after acquiring the knowledge, has realized the opportunity to improve operating
conditions of the plant through condition monitoring. Under the guidance of the CBM team, the following
changes have been implemented in the XYZ’s plant:
 Full-time filtration systems including storage tanks, oil pumps, etc. are installed.
 Finer filtration methods are implemented to clean oil systems to tight tolerances.
 Condition monitoring techniques for oil analysis are implemented by defining lubricant condition
control, onsite monitoring of particle counts, viscosity, and moisture screening.
 Vibration analysis is also adopted to ensure proper alignment and balance of machines’ parts and
detect abnormalities that may otherwise go unnoticed.
 For electrical system’s maintenance, thermography is used.
Discussion questions:
1. Which condition monitoring techniques have been used to improve plant maintenance at XYZ?
2. Do you think that the implementation of condition monitoring techniques is the right decision of XYZ?
Justify your agreement/disagreement.
Answer. 1. Condition monitoring techniques
The CBM team, after acquiring the knowledge, has realized the opportunity to improve operating
conditions of the plant through condition monitoring.
Vibration condition monitoring: Vibrations are inherent in all machines. A vibration can be defined as the
movement of a machine in the back and forth position. It is a parameter that can be used by maintenance
personnel to detect the faults and failures of machines and equipment. A process of monitoring vibrations
in order to find out the probability of failures is called vibration condition monitoring. Vibration condition
Spring-2016
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